The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s whistleblower awards for the 2025 fiscal year demonstrate an alarming drop in whistleblower compensation, as demonstrated by the award orders published by the SEC.
Aside from 122 denials and six orders omitting award amounts, award orders for fiscal year (FY) 2025 total $59.7 million. This figure averages to around $2 million per award.
The 2025 report stands in stark contrast to (FY) 2024 and (FY) 2023, which had totals of $255 million and $600 million, respectively. The SEC’s whistleblower program has not seen such a low level of awards since 2017 under the Obama administration.
Section 21F in the Dodd-Frank Act authorizes the Commission to grant monetary awards to whistleblowers where the sanction exceeds $1,000,000. Since its inception in 2012, the SEC Whistleblower Program has awarded $2 billion to whistleblowers, with $1.8 billion accrued from the years 2020 to 2024. The SEC’s performance in 2025, however, undermines this upward trend, raising questions about the health of a program praised by prior Chairs of the SEC, including Chairman Jay Clayton, President Trump’s first Chair, and former U.S. Attorney and SEC Chair Mary Jo White.
In 2020, when the SEC granted $175 million in awards, Jay Clayton described the program in glowing terms: “Over the past ten years, the whistleblower program has been a critical component of the Commission’s efforts to detect wrongdoing and protect investors and the marketplace, particularly where fraud is well-hidden or difficult to detect.”
Attorneys representing whistleblowers have warned that the SEC’s sharp decline in granting awards puts the program’s ability to attract high-level whistleblowers with information documenting major frauds at significant risk. One whistleblower attorney, speaking off the record, was blunt: “The decline in awards threatens investors and will, in the long term, undermine the integrity of Wall Street.”
Supporters of the SEC Whistleblower Program have told WNN that the drop in whistleblower compensation seen in (FY) 2025 could ultimately violate the SEC’s core mission statement of “maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets.” They warned that “markets will continue to be plagued by fraud if whistleblowers are disincentivized from reporting.”
2025 Award Results Based on SEC Orders
Cases with undisclosed award amounts: 6
Denials: 122
Awards: 28
2025 Award Total: $59.7 million
Prior Year Awards Based on SEC Annual Reports
| Year | Award Amount |
| 2024 | $255 million p.1 |
| 2023 | $600 million p.1 |
| 2022 | $229 million p.1 |
| 2021 | $564 million p.1 |
| 2020 | $175 million p.2 |
